Vacation day

I've been watching the weather for a clear day to go skiing and finally the sun came out and it got cold after several days of snowing in the mountains. So I took the day off and went skiing. It was the best day of skiing I've had all year. I ran into a guy I know on the mountain and took some runs with him. The sun was so bright on the snow that the sky above looked almost black. It's as if you are riding the chair out of the atmosphere and into space. It's really a cool effect and I've seen it a few times, but today was the most intense I've seen it like that.

So I stayed until they closed the lifts and I had a whole run to myself as I made my way back to my car in the parking lot. Actually there were very few people on the hill all day and I often had the whole run to myself. Anyway I got back to my car and made my way down the mountain. I was driving along and heard a bang. I though I hit a pothole. So at a switchback I got out and looked under my car to see if I was loosing any fluid. Nothing. So on home I went. I got about half way home, about 35 miles, and the car started to slip out of gear like you were putting in the clutch but this is an automatic. The transmission had failed. It became clear I wasn't going much farther. So I pulled out into sort of a turnout and collected my camera bag and a few other things including a bottle of pop. I lifted the hood on the car and stuck out my thumb.

In about 5 minutes a guy in a pickup turned around and came back and gave me a lift. A really cool guy named Joe. That's one thing about living here, people are willing to help you out if you get in a bind. The same is true in Montana. I knew it would only take me a few minutes to get a lift. You do have to stay by your car though. We got to talking and I told him where I lived and found out he didn't live too far from me and offered to drop me off, but he said he had to stop and drop something off first at work in a different town. I found out he worked at a rental center. So I asked him if they had tow dollys and if he'd rent me one. They were closed, but he agreed to get one hook it to his truck and drop it and me off at my place. What a guy! I couldn't have possibly have been picked up buy a better guy. Then I got my van and a friend and went back to get my car.

Here's a picture of my car when I got it home. So it's all good... Well except the transmission in my car is out. All in all it was a good day. There are some really cool people out there.

Christian American

Another bumper sticker from North Idaho.

The best one I've seen recently but couldn't get a snap of read: "Lord, help me to be half the person my dog thinks I am."

Contrail picture

I usually try to avoid having contrails in pictures as they can really ruin a good shot. It's something I'm always aware of, but this time I just went with it. This is what it looked like while I was on my way to work a few weeks ago.

I don't think I posted this before. If I have I'm really loosing it. I was on my way to re-hab one morning...

Bodie Miller in Olympics

Bodie Miller is certianly outside of the bubble. I can respect that. I got to see him ski once and he really is amazing. He left the US Ski team and is doing his own thing. I thought the criticizm of him at the Olympics in Torino was totally unfair.

Miller was on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this week and talked about leaving the US Ski Team. It sounded to me like they didn't give too many options, but I've only heard his side of the story. As far as the Olympics go, the media put all of these expectations on him to win every event in Torino. That just doesn't always happen in ski racing. We wouldn't know because until recently our ski racing coverage has been so limited. So of course the public was disappointed.

I had to edit this because the google seach made it look like I was criticizing Bodie Miller which I am not. It made it sound like my criticism of past Olympic TV coverage was criticism of Miller. My complaint is with the media not Miller. Sometimes google searches can be very misleading.

Anyway I hope Miller does go to the Olympics but I can understand why he wouldn't.

Wind storm picture

Right now there's a wind storm outside. That's not too unusual around here when the weather changes. Here's what it looked like tonight. Dust was getting kicked up from the plains to the west. It was hard to hold the camera still.

Daylight savings time

There are two kinds of people. People who think daylight savings time is a good idea and people who don't. I haven't met too many people who think it's a good idea. So If I were president, I'd introduce legislation that would split the difference by a half hour and leave the time alone after that.

Nikon warranty update

My Coolpix L16 was covered under warranty, so it's all cool with my Coolpix. Good for Nikon. Be sure you keep your receipt and warranty card. They sent me a new one as I thought they might as this was the cheapest camera they make. It must have been more expensive for them to take the old one apart and repair it. Either way I don't care I just want a working camera and it does again. I did have to pay for shipping the old camera to them. That's the only thing, but I'm happy with how they took care of the problem.

Running in the snow

Nothing stops some people from running. I really don't get it... I sort of get it, but I don't get it. This couple lives at the foot of a great ski resort and they aren't skiing, they are running on an epic pow day. "Let's go for a run with the dog honey."

Hmm..

Well I don't have a wife or a dog, and perhaps if I did I'd be willing to run with them in a snow storm. I seriously doubt it though. The last time I ran in the snow I think it was at a track meet in Butte Montana. I froze my hind end off. They had to force us out of the school bus. Track took all of the fun out of running for me. I was a sprinter when I was in school and was the anchor man on a relay team. It's not that I need to have fun while I'm working out either, and I often don't have fun when I cycle, but the bike can be fun at times. Skiing is always fun for me, but after track I never wanted to run again.

You couldn't even pay me to run now,.. but this couple seems to enjoy it. I don't think the dog knows any better.

Bike to work

A better man than me. What's my excuse? It didn't stop snowing,.. and I don't want to get my bike dirty.

Laundry boy

This is how the drive down the mountain looked Saturday. It was a real snow storm. I know you shouldn't talk on a cell phone when you drive... Photography is different...

I was talking to Diane about some of the conversations I have had with strangers on the chairlift. Some of the people you kind of temporarliy bond with. She said there was this "single serving friend" concept in the movie Fight Club. I thought that was a good way to look at it. It sounded to me like something Andy Warhol might have come up with.

I rode up the chairlift with a young woman this weekend and struck up a conversation. I asked her what she did, and she said she worked in the laundry at the hospital. Well when I was in school I had a job in a motel laundry. My title was Laundry Boy. Yes they had a position called laundry boy... Of course only boys were hired to be laundry boys.

I worked in the laundry room, of all places, with all of the maids. (housekeepers) All of the maids were girls. My duties were different than the maids. I mostly did laundry, although I did wash glasses and put them in paper wrappers. I took the job as a stepping stone to become a desk clerk. (I was a climber in the hospitality industry.) So after a summer of being laundry boy, I had learned all of the rooms in the motel and knew what beds were in each one. So then I became a desk clerk. Night clerk actually and it was a good job to have while going to school, and a big step up from the laundry boy position.

I observed that women never promoted out of the maid position into the desk clerk position. There were several female desk clerks however, but no female night clerks after one of them got tied up and robbed. I always thought I'd be robbed, and I think I came close one night but it never actually happened.

Anyway I had a lot to talk about with this girl who worked in the hospital laundry. Of course hospital laundry is slightly different than motel laundry. We talked about washers and dryers and folding laundry. This sort of thing. I really enjoyed the conversation.

Chairlift

I've had a lot of conversations with people on the chairlift. I guess it's like on Forest Gump. You never know what you're going to get, and you get just a few minutes to talk to someone. The ride up the hill.

Sometimes there is no conversation, and no desire talk, and people just want to be left alone. I don't always feel like talking myself. Sometimes you meet someone who you find out you want nothing to do with and you can't wait to get off of the lift to get away from them. But other times you meet someone who you can tell is a very special person, and the time you get to spend with them is something of great value.

You get to the top of the hill and the ride is over. Probably never see them again. I guess I'll leave it at that.

It's all good

This is what it looked like tonight when I went home after work. It was beautiful along the train tracks. Cold and clear. A little cold crescent moon up in the sky was flirting with a distant star.

It was one of those weeks when I just have to say, good gosh, I'm glad that week is over.. But then if I think about it, it's one less week of my life I have to live, and that sucks.. if I think about it.

The up-side is,..Well, it is after all still ski season, the sun will be out tomorrow (that sounds really corny) and I'll be up on the mountain skiing. Plus my skis have a fresh race tune done by Fred, and in Fred's words, when I left my skis at his shop this week without getting a claim ticket,. "It's all good."

Who invented the automobile?

I never thought I'd be correcting Barack Obama... We (the United States) did not invent the automobile as President Obama said in his speech tonight, and no,.. Al Gore had nothing to do with it either... Karl Benz invented the first car with a gas motor.

Ford was just first to make the automobile a consumer item. We can hang our hat on that.

I was listening to NPR today and there was one thought put out by a caller who said, perhaps the economy would be rebuilt with less of a consumer mentality and that consumerism was a large part of our economic problem in the first place. That resonated with me. People are buying cars and houses they can't afford, and everything else, and they are going in debt over it. (bigger houses than they need and bigger cars) Cars are a great example of people buying more than they need or in many / most cases, can afford. If we continue to beileve in this model of prosperity, the big car, bigh house standard, where will it lead us?

The caller was rebuked by the hosts of the program who said that becoming less of a consumer based society wasn't good for the economy.. (?) I'm thinking,. What the heck? Where does it all end? When people buy more than they need and go in debt doing it then there's bound to be a problem. How can this be good for the economy?

Other than this one criticism I thought Obama gave a very nice talk...

Nikon Coolpix is inside the bubble

My little Nikon Coolpix L16 died, so I'm sending it in for repair as it's still under warranty. I just turned it on and it said "lens error". So far my contact with Nikon has been good. They said the lens motor was stuck and they usually replace those. For now this little Coolpix is inside the bubble wrap. I'll let you know how it comes out and how Nikon deals with the situation.

My favorite pot

Tonight I broke one of my favorite pots that I use for cooking darn it!. A Visions one like THIS. It was a gift from an ex-girlfriend. She bought me a whole set of them. "These are really nice Don." I remember her saying. What did I know? Well they are really nice... You can cook on the stove top with them, oven and even microwave although this one was too big to go in my little microwave. I love them, but I didn't realize this one was $60 nice... I'll have to get another as I used this all of the time and,.. well,.. I'm set in my ways.. My cooking ways anyways.

And this reminds me of a story.

My friend's father was called up for Jury duty. He was being asked questions to see if they wanted to seat him. "What are some of your interests?" one of the attorneys asked. "Well I like to cook." "What's your favorite dish?" "Melmac" he responded.

Ba dump bump.

Wild turkey photo

I was going up the hill today and came across this wild turkey. It's not a great picture as I had to scramble to find the camera. It was a difficult lighting situation and the darn turkey wouldn't stand still. It kept running around and finally it ran off. So this was the best I could do, but it's a very nice turkey as wild turkeys go. I know one guy who would love to shoot this!..

Right America Feeling Wronged

I just watched the HBO documentary by Alexandra Pelosi, Right America Feeling Wronged. SYNOPSIS IS HERE What a trip.

The film showcases staunch republicans and McCain to his credit had to reel them in.

I took some notes of quotes from McCain supporters featured in the film. It's a little hard to take. It would be hard to believe if I didn't know myself that there's more than just a little truth in it.

I can't resist sharing a few quotes. There was no shortage of bad ones. "If you drink beer, if you go to titty bars for some reason you're a bad person."

(wait a minute,..I drink beer..)

And this about Obama; "I think he hates all people, I think he wants to destroy this earth." "Obama's never lived in real America, he's never seen it." "666 crossed my mind." "Oh my gosh this is him." (the anti Christ)

My gosh is right...McCain isn't the real loser in this election.

Going ape

By now most of us have heard the story of the chimp that went ape. From what I heard his owner was sleeping with him. Sharing a bed anyway. Not a good idea. Not for me anyway. When I first got my late cat Spunky, I made it clear that my bedroom was off limits. There has to be some boundries in the pet / owner relationship, and I'm alergic anyway. I'd wake up all stuffed up.

But the thought of sleeping with a big hairy beast in a diaper...

Conversion to DTV

Tonight is the early switch to DTV from analog. Most of the stations here in are changing over now. I went to the coupon website the very day they ran out of funds. So I put my name on a waiting list. I only asked for one coupon as I only need one in Montana. There were many people who got the coupons and didn't use them before they expired. So last week I received my coupon, actually like a gift card, and I went to the store and used it to buy a converter. They only had one converter left at the store where I went.

Over the weekend I listened to a piece on NPR about a woman who started using one of these converters somewhere in Arizona if I think it was. She reported that it worked only when the signal was strong and often pixelated out. So she said she pretty much stopped watching TV. The story went on to report that the testing they did was based on an outdoor antenna 30 feet up in the air, like on a rooftop. What I came away with from that report was that you really need a good antenna and a strong signal for digital over the airwaves to work well. The nice thing about analog was that if the signal was weak the picture might be fuzzy but you could still see what was going on. It's often like that in remote places. I remember watching the World Series one time on a little black and white TV in the bunkhouse of a ranch way out in the middle of Montana miles from the nearest town. The picture was fuzzy and the sound scratchy but we could tell what was going on and that was all that mattered. It sounds to me like rabbit ears inside a house may not work unless there is a very strong signal.

So tomorrow I'm going to hook up my little TV with its little indoor antenna and see what happens. Right now I'm getting all three networks and one public station analog. One network, CBS is weak. The real test will be in Montana when I go to the cabin.

***
Morning of the 18th: The digital converter is working well with the indoor antenna. The channel that had been weak analog is smaller on the screen for some reason, but the rest of the channels are fine and there are more of them actually incuding Universal Sports. (the ski racing channel) So that's a pleasant development. :)

Happy Valentine's Day